The invention relates generally to firearms, and, more particularly, to a protective shoulder support element for a small arm having a shoulder support for supporting the small arm in the firing position.
The position terms used in this patent, like xe2x80x9cfrontxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ctopxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbottomxe2x80x9d or the like always assume a weapon in the normal firing position; (i.e., a weapon position in which the center axis of the barrel of the weapon runs generally horizontally and the direction of firing points xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d away from the shooter).
For reasons of weight, weapon housings as well as the front and rear shaft have recently been manufactured from light plastic materials. This type of design (sometimes also thin-walled) of the housing and/or shaft can be readily deformed or even cracked, for example, when the weapon falls from some height, such as from the loading surface of a truck onto the ground and strikes the rear shaft. To remedy this problem, it is known to mount on the rear end of the weapon housing (in weapons in the bullpup design) or on the rear face of the rear shaft (in ordinary weapons) a so-called base or shoulder plate. In these approaches, the back side of the weapon housing or the rear shaft, which represents one of the main stress zones, is covered to the rear by the base plate. The base plate is then supposed to take up all undesired loads acting on the weapon from the rear, especially transverse loads. Ordinarily the base plate is mounted on the weapon housing from the rear (in weapons in the bullpup design) or on the rear shaft (in ordinary weapons) by several screws running in the longitudinal direction of the weapon.
This protective measure, however, has not always proven sufficient. During severe stress (for example, upon falling from great height), the force transfer over the few screw connections of the base plate leads to damage to the weapon housing or rear shaft. There is also the hazard that the screw connections will be torn out from their mount in the base plate during transverse loading.
A recoil-damping shoulder support element for a weapon is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,342. The base plate of this shoulder support element is connected to the shoulder support via a tongue-in-groove connection formed between the base plate and a shoulder support. This solution is primarily conceived for automatic weapons with rapid firing, in which the recoil is so strong that suitable use of the weapon is no longer possible. For this purpose, the shoulder support element is divided into two parts, namely, (a) a first section which is rigidly connected to the rear end of the small arm, and (b) a second section that is moveable relative to the first section along the shoulder support height. The second section is guided, for example, on a rail and held in a rest position via a retaining spring and optionally guided back after deflection by a recoil.
Shoulder support elements of the type just mentioned with a one-part base plate are known, for example, from DE-GM 1,942,427, U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,765 and FR-PS 1,092,840.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a shoulder support element is provided for use in a firearm. The shoulder support element includes a shoulder support adapted to support the small arm in the firing position and a base plate removably mounted to the shoulder support such that impact forces applied to the base plate are distributed to the shoulder support.